Since I have zero interest in the Super Bowl, I will blog horror this evening, ok, well, its almost midnight, so its evening to me.
The Devil's Chair
A man locked away in a mental health hospital on suspicions that he
murdered his girlfriend vows to reveal the infernal truth behind the
young woman's agonizing death in British horror specialist Adam Mason's
satanic shocker. Nick and Sammy were just
two horny with time to kill and a pocket full of drugs. Upon discovering
an abandoned asylum, the pair ventures inside and finds a bizarre
contraption that appears to be a cross between an electric chair and a
sadistic fetish device. It seems that this chair has the power to
transform chemical bliss into unimaginable despair, and when Sammy is
assaulted and brutally slain by an unknown force Nick becomes the number
one suspect in her murder. Years later, after being held in a high
security mental hospital, Nick is released into the care of his
psychiatrist Dr. Willard (David Gant). Dr. Gant suspects that there is
more to this murder than the authorities realize, and in order to prove
it he organizes a special field trip to the decrepit asylum where Sammy
was slain. Accompanying Nick and Dr. Willard on their excursion are a
group of Dr. Willard's most prestigious students. But Nick has been
diagnosed as clinically insane, and years of psychiatric treatment have
irreversibly altered his perception of reality. Now, as the brutal,
blood-soaked truth emerges from the darkness intent on destroying
everything in it's path, Nick will have to overcome demons of both the
psychological and supernatural varieties if he holds out any hope of
ending the slaughter and proving his sanity.
Don't Look in The Basement - Highly Recommended!
One of the first of several horror films with "Don't" leading the title,
this gory low-budget thriller takes place in an experimental hospital
for the criminally insane, where the pioneering director allows several
patients to act out their twisted fantasies (which involve necrophilia,
paranoia and popsicles). When a new staffer shows up, things start to go
haywire -- beginning with the bloody axe-murder of the doctor himself
and leading to a total takeover of the asylum by its most dangerous
inmates. The acting is horrendous, the sound is incoherent and the color
is so cheap-looking that some theaters were issued black-and-white
prints... but somehow the intrinsic sleaziness generated by the
threadbare production manages to lend it a remarkably suitable ambience.
Instead of vanishing into obscurity, this quirky little potboiler
became a staple on the early-70's drive-in circuit, thanks to Hallmark
Films' frequent double-bill bookings with Wes Craven's Last House on the
Left (even borrowing the logline "Keep telling yourself: It's only a
movie...") and Mario Bava's Bay of Blood. Some video versions are
missing most of the graphic violence from the original cut.
The Marsh - This was good!
Haunted by gruesome visions of violence and death that would be far out
of place in her successful series of children's books, a sophisticated
author embarks on a brief sabbatical into the countryside that turns out
to be far from the convalescent getaway her doctor had prescribed.
Claire Holloway (Gabrielle Anwar) is an author whose rich imagination
has fueled a successful career in children's literature, but one glimpse
beneath the surface of her fragile psyche reveals a woman whose life
has been far from storybook perfect. Tortured by a darkness that seems
to grow blacker with each passing day, Claire follows her doctor's
advice to leave the city behind and collect her thoughts at the
picturesque Rose Marsh Farmhouse. Upon arriving at the remote farmhouse,
however, Claire quickly realizes that the formidable estate bears an
uncanny resemblance to the house that plagues her nightmares. When a
series of strange and seemingly supernatural events lead Claire to
believe that the ghostly young girl who dwells in her dreams may in fact
be real, the frightened author seeks out the aid of handsome newspaper
publisher Noah (Justin Louis) and paranormal consultant hunt (Forest
Whitaker) in solving the mystery of this cursed village